Video - Learning To Walk In The City - If You Listen Real Hard You Can Hear The Clomp Clomp Of Her Steps

These shoes were made for walking

After everyone at daycare besides Avery came down with hand, foot and mouth disease there was one day 2 weeks ago where she was the only "baby" in Infant I. The normal transition age to Infant II is 10-11 months, but there was a major backlog from toddlers on down, so Avery stayed in Infant I until she was 1 week shy of 14 months. She was so over the little babies, she wanted big kid friends to walk and talk with. One of the teachers in Infant I said there had been so much talking and the teachers there aren't used to any baby-talk because the babies usually transition before they really start chattering. Avery and 4 of her closest compadres have just transitioned into Infant II. This is a work in progress, especially since she's been out sick this week, but I digress.

One fun thing about Infant II is they get to go outside and play a couple of times a day. The day when she was the only survivor of HFM, her teacher Alma took her over to the big kid room and she got to go outside. She had to borrow another little girl's shoes because I had never brought shoes there for her. She spent her first 13.5 months barefoot. So we realized she'd need to be getting used to shoes before she really transitioned to the next room. At Avery's birthday party, her little friend Ava had the cutest shoes from Babies R Us, so we set out to find her shoes there and ended up buying the exact same pair of velcro-on, pink flowered, rubber-soled shoes. So cute.

Whenever we would put them on her, she would sit down and touch the shoes and look at them and forget that she knew how to walk. A few days ago, Jon took Avery to the park with Quincy in her new shoes. She sat for a few minutes and he eventually coaxed her to stand and start walking. It's not easy walking in shoes after all this time barefoot. She fell a few times but did not want to stop walking. The very next day, Jon was getting ready to take her and Quincy for a walk and he put his shoes on. She had an epiphone, walked over to her own shoes and picked them up for Daddy to put on her feet. She wore them proudly as they walked down our favorite little neighborhood street. Neighbors came out to see her walking all by herself. This after she has spent the last 14 months in a sling on these walks. When they returned home she refused to take off her shoes. The next morning when she woke up the first thing she pointed to were her shoes. She is in love with her little pink sneakers and in love with the independence of walking down the street or path on her own. She doesn't want to hold a hand, or heaven forbid, be picked up. She is on a mission to walk, walk, walk and we wish her many, many miles and soft, grassy landings.

Twizzlers and Hohos

Just a funny story from our trip home from Alabama, via Memphis, TN. We were lucky to sit next to 2 very kind women on the trip from Memphis to LAX. They tried to entertain Avery when she would be fussy and they were both kind enough to offer her some snacks. I came relatively prepared with milk, water, yogurt, banana, plum and avacado. My co-passengers were not satisfied with this range of sustenance.

The nice woman in the middle seat, let's call her Tulie, bought Twizzlers from the flight attendant. Tulie immediately offered one to Avery. To which I said, "oh thank you so much, but she does not need a twizzler, thank you." It did not end there. A couple of hours later, Tulie wanted some more of her Twizzlers and Avery was fussy and she said "oh I bet a Twizzler would make her happy". I have no doubt that a Twizzler would make her happy, but that doesn't mean she needs one!! Tulie even went so far as to say, "oh she has teeth, so it would be bad if she bit off a piece of a twizzler." Sure, Tulie, believe what you want to believe, that if my 1 year old had no teeth I would have no qualms about giving her pure sugar.

So then window lady, let's call her Janice, breaks out a box of 10 hoho's and says, "would she like a hoho? I bet she would like a hoho". (oh thank you so much, but she's fine, really, thank you though).
What!?!?!? really!?!?!? Do people feed their 1 year olds these things or were these women out of touch with a 1 year old's dietary needs? I am afraid it is the former but hope it is the latter. Surely it's not my issue :)

Happy Birthday Lucia, Elliott & Mazie

Like herding cats.....

Below are 4 prime examples of how very difficult it is to capture pictures of the 4 cousins. These were the best of the bunch and not one of them is perfect. Never mind that Avery is crying in 3 out of the 4 pictures. The first 2 are toward the end of the triplets' birthday party. The 3rd is one morning in the country and the 4th is of them playing in the kitchen corner. These picture make me realize just how talented my sister is that she got great shots of the triplets together every month of their 1st year. Life is very busy with 4 toddlers around. We had an amazing time.

Colorado with Friends

Jon went to Colorado this past weekend with his 3 best friends from childhood (L to R, Mike, Jon, Alex and Craig). They had a great time doing everything but wrestling bears - enjoying nature, hiking, white water rafting, skeet shooting and mountain biking. Hopefully they can all be together again soon. We were so relieved that Alex made it home for the birth of their new baby girl (by 12 minutes). Congratulations!

While Daddy's Away...

So just 10 days before Daddy's departure date, I got an urgent call from Auntie Bee saying "Great Grandma Libby is surprising your sister for the triplets' birthday, you have to figure out a way to be here". So while Daddy went to Colorado, Avery and I left just 3 weeks after returning for another trip to see her precious cousins. We had a great time. Grandpa and NanaLin were there and Grancy came with GreatAunt Nita and Libby. The picture above is Avery with Grandpa.